The metallic arm slammed against the Odachi as a ringing noise echoed through their bones. Without a break in motion the elegant grip of the sword tightens, and with one swift swing the air cracked, the rising prosthetic suddenly snapped to the right, barely dodging the swift blow. Despite this, the wind dragged by the swing, pressed deeper into invisible gaps as another crack crawled into the metal shell regardless of the blade’s contact.

  Remi raised his camera behind a table, his assistant too beside him. Both of them miraculously managed to not be seen by the man with prosthetics as he recorded each evidences of corruption.

  Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten far enough into the mansion to get convincing evidence.

  But in a turn of events, he had met Eridanus Linn, a freelancer, who just so happens to have the same suspicion as him, which was quite the miracle seeing that the people inside were inhumanly strong. Then again Versile was a really weird thing in the first place.

  Looking at the fights between him and the others, Remi could only thank the coincidence even more.

  Throwing all pointless thoughts, he rapidly zoomed the camera around, making sure each of the actions were in view. Although, it was quite pointless to record fighting but who knows? Maybe, he’ll get lucky and they might suddenly say unexpected things that could be used for evidence.

  Despite this wishful thinking, he mostly likely would just throw them in the bin if nothing happened. Too much storage would cost too much without much benefit in the first place.

  Of course, he would store them for quite some time but it wasn't like his camera has immediate access to the cloud, the security for those websites were insane!

  A banging sound of metal clashing slammed against his ears, startling Remi out of his thoughts like cold water.

  The blade gently waved in the air, landing on random points that seemed unrelated to one another, yet with each swing the air thickened, the sounds carrying their clash quieted down as the elegant and gentle movement slowly stuttered. By each second, the swings stuttered every more and before long crudeness had replaced the former swings, yet the air remained calmer than ever before. It was like the blade was carrying the rough movement of the surroundings.

  The tip of the blade twisted, the picture frames spiraled as they lifted from the wall, eventually moving an inch closer to the blade before dropping down to the floor.

  The dust gathering from the broken pieces clustered around the blade in the wind that seemed more skillful than the blade itself, rotating in an unnoticed spiral.

  Remi’s eyes widened. Wind manipulation? He wasn't quite sure as the clustering dust bashed against their neck before their eyes shook. They stood there for a second, collapsing to the ground when he pressed his sword slightly to the chest.

  Eridanus climbed onto their body, pulling out a syringe before driving it into their neck.

  Coming out of cover, Remi strapped the camera to his chest, walking closer to the very well alive body as he lifted their clothes. A few items, cramped themselves inside the pocket, mostly drinks to keep one awake.

  His assistant, Ema, followed from behind, lightly scrutinizing Eridanus as his faint tired breath made it into her ears.

  Not caring to pay any attention to it, she kneeled beside Remi, checking the body alongside him. Her hands slowly made their way to their sleeves, a long cylinder made contact with her nails as she quickly brought out the object in order to inspect further.

  Remi's notice shifted to her, watching closely to the metallic hand while expecting an object that could be served as evidence.

  However, the next moment shattered his expectation, a long cylinder object with a darkened button on the top stunned everyone with wires attached to the walls.

  Without a second of hesitation, Remi bolted towards the object, squeezing it with horrifying force. His hands were pressed even more by Ema, red spots appearing on his hand, and yet he withstood it.

  In the same tick of a clock, Eridanus rushed towards the wires hidden behind the walls, previous experiences bashing itself in his head as he accelerated more than ever before. The wires leading the cabinets on top, the blade swung. Brute force crushed the cabinet, pieces going in their own path as the blade swept through each barrier.

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  An object suddenly blocked its way, halting all of its momentum before the object shattered into pieces, absorbing all of the sword's speed.

  With the cabinets wide opened, the broken cables and ripped out wires twisted until they fell apart to ground. Fingers wrapped each piece, joyfully with it with another gripping a smokey gun, pointing towards the point where the sword had stopped.

  Brown hair, silver eyes with a body that had extreme flexibility.

  “That wasn't quite nice, was it?” She smiled, looking at his old friend whom he hadn't met since forever.

  Remi examined closer while still holding the dead man's switch, recognizing her immediately after one close look. After all, her appearance was one that was quite uncommon.

  “Jayden?”

  ***

  Each lock that hung on the door came undone, the metallic puddle of the locks seeped into the tiles, solidifying a metal block that filled the gaps between each tile.

  Taking a breather, I extended my hand towards the handle, hard and freezing as I expected.

  With my memories absent from its place, and without knowing where I was, it was already an extremely dangerous situation. Well, I couldn’t whine about it now.

  The chances of the other side were slim, and I couldn't take any risks immediately opening the door. Without twisting the handle, my hands pressed against the door as my head inched closer.

  Waiting for any vibration to no avail, my ears hugged the wall, the state of focus submerged me fully. Without any noise to pick up on, my head nudged in the direction of my pocket.

  A solution I hadn't been using quite as often as my ability. Well of course, it might not be very helpful in this kind of situation as the A.I only knew so much. Nevertheless, it was still reliable as codes beeped out of my hands, bypassing all solids as it reached my inner pocket.

  With no delay, it vibrated.

  [What do you want me to do?] A voice echoed through my mind. Not an external voice brought by other sources but one gained from repeated experiences made by himself. In short, it was an inner voice that automatically translated codes and ring them out inside of my mind.

  Throwing all pointless remarks, a flood of concentration flowed through my mind as waves passing through my delightful disguised skin became clearer. Each wave emitting from all directions, the heavily noticeable ones, seemingly having a pattern all came from one direction with the more invisible waves coming from a few points.

  My location detecting skills akin to echo location weren't that strong, at least yet but the shapes were clear enough to map out a layout. From each major wave to the minors, it seems that there was heavy machinery on the general left with all of the minor points spreading evenly. The major ones were quite vague using only the waves despite its massive frequency force, the object could be anywhere from super machines to automatic gun machines if I'm counting the discovery.

  The minor ones on the other hand were clear as the blue sky. Considering that I had seen its type multiple times even if I'm staying at home.

  Cameras, more specifically a security camera that emitted alertness all across the place.

  Watching as the waves moved a little before repeating the pattern of getting closer and further, my head lit up as an idea covered my mind.

  [Can you hack it? Or disable it?] I sent signals along its way, hoping that they would be able to do something.

  [The cameras? Hold on.]

  It replied after a few seconds.

  [Froze the displayed frame.]

  Smiling at the reply, I twisted the handle lightly, a faint smell of coffee rose to my nose, the air carrying the sound of pianos from above, cameras beeping with their frames frozen.

  I shook my head, shaking off any carelessness. Even if this was the ideal situation, it certainly wasn’t the best. But since I couldn’t wish for the best thing that was not getting kidnapped in the first place, the least I could do was not to let my escape efforts go to waste.

  Looking at the bright walls of the hallways littered with picture frames, a plump man standing near what seems to be a beauty salon. Steps echoed as I got closer to the frames, fingers reached for the frame, the golden outline bumped my fingers with each movement, clearly out of high quality.

  The man smiled in the frame, holding onto the shoulder of another person as they both wore almost identical clothes, the only thing different was their height. One was slightly shorter and one was taller. The plump one’s neck glittered with stopwatches, almost fully filled to the brim with them. Contrasting with the man, stopwatches didn’t appear once at all but instead replaced with orderly tattoos that spaced themselves with precisions.

  My eyes squinted at their view, desperately trying to stir my memories that had been absent for the last week. From the start of the week to the end of the week, even to the past months and…

  I remembered.

  I remembered walking down the street, buying a few drinks before resting in my favourite cafe, and…that was it.

  I can’t recall what had happened after that nor could I recall things before I woke up, it was like someone forcefully removed my memories. My eyes slid as I frantically tried my best to recall each memory I could remember but still that was the only thing I remembered.

  Checking the frame once again, my eyes slid across their faces, the reflecting lights of the plump man scattered across my eyes. Startledness shot through my nerves, eyes darted towards the plump man once again, landing onto his face as my focus absorbed into his details. Familiarity rushed towards my mind as the memories of that man resurfaced.

  The plump man was none other than the one I had protected in Nightlights. The one that had been murdered and the one that got me kidnapped back then.